The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has urged Kyrgyzstan to stop a move to liquidate the Kloop Media Public Foundation, an anti-corruption investigative website that has been critical of the Central Asian nation's government, saying it is "an outrageous and shameful" to stifle free speech and independent reporting.
Kloop said on August 28 that it had been informed that six days earlier, a move was taken aimed at suspending its operations in Kyrgyzstan due to its critical coverage of the government. Kloop’s chief editor, Anna Kapushenko, called it part of a "long chain" of actions to suppress the media.
The CPJ said it tried to contact the press secretary of Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov, as well as the State Committee for National Security and the Bishkek city prosecutor, to discuss the matter, but the attempts were unsuccessful.
SEE ALSO: Inside Kyrgyzstan's Campaign To Silence Journalist Bolot Temirov"Kyrgyz authorities’ application to shutter Kloop is an outrageous and deeply cynical attempt to stifle some of Kyrgyzstan’s most probing investigative journalism, including investigations of alleged corruption involving leading state officials," the CPJ's program director in New York, Carlos Martinez de la Serna, said in a statement.
Established in June 2007, Kloop is a Kyrgyz news website most of whose contributors are students and graduates of the Kloop Media Public Foundation School of Journalism.
As an independent media entity, it is known for publishing reports on corruption within various governmental bodies and providing training to Central Asian journalists in fact-checking and investigative techniques.
Bektour Iskender, a co-founder of Kloop, told the CPJ that he believed the application for liquidation might be linked to an investigation the outlet carried out on August 22 that alleged relatives of Japarov and the head of the State Committee for National Security were linked to the construction on state land of a soccer academy in Kyrgyzstan linked to the renowned Spanish soccer club FC Barcelona.
Japarov has confirmed construction of the Barcelona project, asserting that it served as a social facility, and he accused Kloop of solely producing “only negative” content.
SEE ALSO: The Abdukadyr Family Made A Fortune In Collusion With Corrupt Central Asian Officials. Now They've Built A Global Business Empire.Kloop has said it will countersue the government if it does not withdraw the lawsuit to liquidate it.
Kyrgyzstan's civil society and free press have traditionally been the most vibrant in Central Asia, but that has changed amid a deepening government crackdown.
More than 20 people, including NGO leaders and other activists, are currently facing trial on serious charges for their opposition to oppose a controversial border agreement between Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan last year.
The annual media-freedom rankings published by the Reporters Without Borders watchdog last month showed Kyrgyzstan falling 50 places to 122nd out of 180 countries.
In April, a court in Bishkek approved the request of the Information Ministry to shut down the operations of Radio Azattyk, RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service, after the broadcaster's refusal to remove a video about clashes along a disputed segment of the Kyrgyz-Tajik border.
After the websites were blocked, Radio Azattyk's bank account in Bishkek was frozen, while in November, Kyrgyz authorities suspended the accreditations of 11 RFE/RL correspondents at parliament.
Last month, the Bishkek City Court annulled the decision to shut Azattyk's operations during an appeal hearing by the broadcaster.